Railway trains may include a lead locomotive and one or more remote locomotives distributed throughout a length of the train for providing cumulative or reserve motoring capacity. Typically, an operator is stationed on the lead locomotive to control movement of the train by directly controlling operation of the lead locomotive and remotely controlling the remote locomotives. Each remote unit typically receives control information corresponding to control inputs provided by the operator in the lead locomotive and adjusts its operation according to the received control information.
Locomotives are known to be powered by electrical current sourced from a catenary, such as via a pantograph contacting an overhead wire carrying sufficient electric current to power the locomotive. However, the catenary may be discontinuous and include neutral sections, or split phasing sections, where no electricity is available to power a locomotive. For example, different sections of a catenary may be energized by different power plants producing power having different phases of electrical power such that the phase of power available at each section may varies from section to section. Consequently, to pass through a neutral section, traction motors of a locomotive are typically turned off, a main circuit breaker of the locomotive is opened, and, in some cases, the pantograph is lowered before reaching the neutral section so that the locomotive is disconnected form the catenary, and consequently, the locomotive remains un-powered while disconnected. While an operator on a lead locomotive may directly control a neutral section operation for a lead locomotive, unmanned remote locomotives being remotely controlled by a lead locomotive need to be instructed to perform such procedures before passing through the neutral section.